Tuesday - January 30, 2007

Neverend - Review @ GamersInfo

by Dhruin, 23:21

GamersInfo has an unconventional review of Mayhem's Neverend. It's a bit hard to work out the value of the article but Neverend gets little coverage, so it's worth a look if you are interested in this title. The author seems very impressed with the story but hasn't finished the game - or even worked it all out:

I'm going to pause here in telling the story to talk about one portion of gameplay, that being spells. I have no CLUE how to use spells in this game. At least, not yet. The game doesn't really have a tutorial, just a book manual, and from having read the manual I still can't tell how I'm supposed to use spells. You see, there are these scrolls. And they say that they have a certain number of uses. And I can put them in my spellbook. And there are runs that somehow get combined to do something. But, well, that's about as much as I've been able to figure out. I have yet to successfully cast or use a spell, which seems like it would be rather important to be able to do given that Agavaen is a magician. It was because I was trying to figure out how magic worked that I went looking for a walkthrough. Didn't find anything, unfortunately. However, I can say with confidence that this hasn't stopped me from both playing and enjoying the game. I just have to use the best weapon I can find, and rest after combat, that's all. At least, at the level I've reached it works.

Thursday - January 04, 2007

Neverend - US Retail Patch @ 3D Gamers

by Kalia, 17:48

3D Gamers has the latest Neverend patch bringing the US retail version to v1.1. Here's what's included:

Silverline Software has issued a new retail patch for Neverend, updating the US edition of the 3D fantasy role-playing game by Mayhem Studios to (presumably) version 1.1, in sync with the earlier German and French upgrades. This patch addresses a wide variety of instabilities and crashes, as well as applying some gameplay corrections.

Monday - November 27, 2006

Neverend - Review @ Game Chronicles

by Dhruin, 20:35

Mayhem's Neverend has been slaughtered in a review at Game Chronicles, which sports a score of 3.5/10:

It might not be so bad getting lost in repetitive fantasy landscapes if it weren't for the fact that Neverend also has a terribly archaic and clunky random map battle system. At any given moment while wandering hopelessly through the woods looking for some way to advance the story, the words PREPARE TO FIGHT may appear on screen, at which point the game segues to battle.

Battles are as simple as picking an action in turn (stronger attacks count down more slowly), while opponents do the same. And... that's really about all there is to it. Its too simple to really hold any interest for long, but at least it's intuitive. Frustratingly enough, there doesn't seem to be much of a throttle on the relative strength of the enemies Agavaen encounters during these random battles. For instance, at level 2, she might be able to handle a wolf with less than half of her HP without much trouble... but four of them? By herself? Come on. And some of the enemies you run the risk of crossing are just ridiculously overpowered for when they appear in-game.

Thursday - November 09, 2006

Neverend - Review @ NL Gaming

by Dhruin, 21:04

Mayhem's Neverend has been reviewed at NL Gaming. The score is 74% and the only real drawback seems to be dated graphics:

The game has a lot of good ideas like the battle system and the how you are free to chose what to spend your points in the leveling system. However, the graphics hold the game back as most PC RPG's are better looking. If you can get past the graphics then you will discover a world full of side quests and some humor. The storyline is well thought out and has a nice pace throughout the game. With the way you can choose how your character levels and the setting on how hard you want the game to be gives the game a moderate replay value.

Thursday - October 26, 2006

Neverend - Review @ GameShark

Players can, of course use items during combat and the game's own unique brand of magic to defeat enemies. Magic is another part of the game that may have some gamers scratching their heads. Before getting to how it all works there's one thing that just doesn't make sense: if you aren't in combat you can't cast magic. That's right - if you're wandering around the overland map injured after a tough battle you'd better have some potions on you to take care of the problem, because magic is off the menu. This is probably one of the oddest implementations of a magic system I've seen in a long time.

Friday - October 20, 2006

Neverend - Review @ Just Adventure

The core of Neverend is the exploration, interaction with non-player characters (NPC), and the acquisition of quests that are completed for rewards of experience, items, and money. A quest log keeps track of the quest, but does not keep track of the hints given to the antagonist at the time the quest is added to the log. The game player will need to take paper notes of the hints given at the time the quest is obtained. Some quests lead to other quests, the so called chain quests, while other quests are stand alone. The quest system is quite satisfactory and was a lot of fun. The quest system could have been better designed by putting the hints with the quests in the quest log. A very nice feature of the log is that quests completed are tracked in the log along with quests in progress. This is useful if you play the game through twice or with different characters so that the player does not get confused about fished quests and quests yet to come. There are well over one hundred quests.

Saturday - October 14, 2006

Neverend - Review @ Gamespot

by Kalia, 01:49

Gamespot has put up a review of Neverend, scoring it a pathetic 3.3/10.00 ("Bad"). Here's a portion of the pain:

Balance is a huge problem. In terms of difficulty, the encounters in NeverEnd are all over the place. Right from the beginning of the game, you might run into monsters that are powerful enough to slaughter you in seconds. This continues to occur throughout the game. You'll be moving along just fine, then suddenly, you run into a pair of ghosts you can't even scratch, or a couple of faeries (yes, faeries) who smoke you in seconds with critical hits. The game is pretty heavy on combat, as well, and there is no way to avoid going mano a mano on a frequent basis, as battles appear totally out of the blue when you're exploring the wilderness. One moment you're wandering through an empty clearing, then the next moment, you see a "Prepare for Battle" warning and are off to yet another melee with who knows what kinds of enemies.

Thursday - September 21, 2006

Neverend Gold In the US @ GG Mania

GG Mania is carrying the official announcement that Neverend has gone gold in the US:

DreamCatcher Games today announced that its fantasy role-playing game Neverend for PC has gone gold in North America nd will begin hitting store shelves this September.

Numerous enhancements have been added to the game since its original release to heighten the overall gameplay experience including, new cut-scenes, an in-game mapping system, improved camera angles, gameplay mechanics and balancing.

Thursday - August 10, 2006

Neverend Captures a US Publisher @ Gamer's Hell

by Kalia, 01:02

Gamer's Hell is reporting that Dream Catcher Games in partnership with Mayhem Studios will be bringing Neverend to US consumers.

DreamCatcher Games today announced a partnership with Mayhem Studios to bring Neverend in the US. The game tells the story of Agavaen, a mysterious young woman with magical powers who must uncover clues to her own identity, and will be released this month. Check these screenshots and the press release for more info.